The rest of the caravan was still a couple of days away, but the route to get to the ridge was pretty much secure, it was just how to get down into the valley that presented a minor challenge.

Yuriko sat on the edge, with her legs dangling over the void. The mists thickened despite the noonday sun, obscuring most of the valley in the process. It might have been luck that allowed her to get such a good view right when she crested the ridge, but perhaps the winds blew the mist to and fro regularly. She sat down and observed. The valley was eerily quiet, especially when the mists rolled in. No bird song, no insects, no animal calls…

It was a steep slope to go down, roughly eighty or so paces from where she sat to the bottom. Even so, the earth was covered with vines, grass, shrubs, and trees. There were no convenient clearings they could gather at, and it looked like she’d have to make it instead.

She dropped down from her seat, pushing off when she got too close to the face. A couple of seconds later she landed on a tree branch, which bent slightly under her weight and momentum. The forest floor was covered in dead leaves and branches, which masked how uneven the ground was. If she couldn’t feel it with her perception, any of those holes could break her foot.

Once she was on the ground, she used kinesis to push all of the leaves away, revealing damp earth and stones. She looked back up the cliff, but couldn’t see past the canopy and the mists. For that matter, it was hard to see down here, with the darkness and the obscuring phenomena. She allowed her Anima to intensify, and the mists boiled away from her Radiant energy.

Underneath the canopy, she could see the tree trunks were spaced apart. Each one was at least five or six paces from each other. The bushes and shrubs covered everything else though, and the air was damp enough that her poncho was soaked.

Golden sunshards materialised from behind her and she sent them out to cut the undergrowth away. The dampness meant that the flora didn’t just burst to flame, but the evaporating dew added to the unpleasant humidity. Why did this place feel more humid than the seaside? She grumbled to herself, as she tamped down the dirt until she had a nice level ground.

She sent a few shards up to clear some branches, and a minute later, she had a clear view of the ridgetop, as well as the pole she left there to mark. After she secured the landing point, she floated back up and stabbed pitons into the rockface, and threaded the rope through the eye. She continued until she had a dozen pitons and rope secured on the face, then did the same until there were five paths down.

As the afternoon wore on, the mists got thicker and thicker, until everything was muffled and obscured. She built up a campfire runescript pattern in the middle of the cleared ground, then checked from above if it was visible from the ridge. Once she was satisfied, she decided to patrol around the clearing. A couple of hundred paces east, she came across a brook. Fish and bugs, a few frogs, and was that a snake? No birds?

The brook undulated southwards, and after following it for half a longstride, it merged into a bigger stream. It continued to meander south, so she turned back. The obsidian pillars…

‘That’s where we have to go, right?’ She asked Fri’Avgi.

‘One of the paths,’ the artefact spirit answered. ‘But I can’t tell you which is the best one… something is blocking…’

Anyway, the nearest one was to the northeast, so continuing south wasn’t a good idea. She checked the rest of the forest around the landing point and found it mostly devoid of creatures or foes. The trees were a mix of pine, oak, and acacia. Some ironwood, maybe. And a few giants whose trunks were nearly ten paces across. Those weren’t that tall, however, so from above, they didn’t stand out.

By the time she came back to the landing, it was already dusk. And the silence was deafening.

________

Gwendith hummed as she trudged down the forest path. Behind her was her cousin, Asami, keeping a wary eye on the bushes. Every now and then, they rustled, and she would send her Wind Scour to check, and then she’d sigh when she didn’t find anything.

Three crystalline ice daggers floated around Gwendith, tethered by her pale pink Anima. Although her Anima reach was barely sixteen inches, by compressing and stretching it, her daggers could actually remain tethered up to three times as far. That was barely a pace away at the moment, but she could also throw the daggers accurately up to a hundred paces away. Recreating them took only time and effort, and a minimal amount of Animus.

However, her Animus had not condensed from its base photonic form. Journeymen have gaseous Animus, which was severalfold more efficient and resilient compared to an Apprentice or Novice. It meant that her reserves were actually lesser than someone of comparable lumen count at the same level, like Asami. Yuriko’s Animus was similarly diffuse, but she saw her darling compress Animus sometimes, using her Anima. Gwendith tried to puzzle out how that would work, but it was like squeezing water out of a rock with her hands. Futile.

Thankfully, her Ennoia and her Animakinesis more than made up for the lack.

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She was quite happy, regardless. Even if they were trudging from desert to mountain, to steamy jungles. Ah, but she could watch Yuriko and even share a bathtub with her, which honestly made her pulse race. And the few times she managed to snuggle up were bliss.

“What’s got you so giddy?” Asami sniffed. “Ah, no need to explain, it's always her, isn’t it?” She shook her head. “Oh, Gwen, what will you do once she gets married.”

Gwendith rolled her eyes. “You want to talk about that again? The answer remains the same, I’ll follow her.”

“And if grandpa sets up your union?”

Gwendith glared at her cousin and shrugged. “I may never come back,” she whispered.

“Gramps endangered the south just so he could try and rescue you,” Asami said softly, but there was no hiding the hint of accusation. “The least you could do is come see them.”

“They failed,” Gwendith said sourly, her good mood had plummeted to the depths. “They didn’t rescue me.”

Asami sighed. “Sorry.”

“Whatever,” Gwendith grunted, shivering as memories flashed through her mind. She shuddered and pushed them away. She certainly didn’t want to remember that rotter’s touch…

She pushed memories of nights beside Yuriko in the forefront, of the light that her beloved shed. The Radiant light burned away the shadows and banished the darkness. Her anger and fear melted away and Gwendith took a deep breath and released her pain.

The two of them continued on the path, and soon enough, she saw the pole marker Yuriko left on the ridge. It was a stick a couple of paces long, but half of it had been embedded into the earth. The tip had runescript lines for light, which drew ambient Chaos to power the weaving.

A couple of dozen people were already by the ridge. And even as Gwendith watched, five of them rappelled down the cliffside. The horses and other supplies were a bit of a way behind, as were Heron and Yuriko’s other suitors.

She approached the ledge and peered down. There was a bit of light directly under, and she could see the ex-guards sliding down the ropes. They landed at the bottom in good order and then spread out towards the campfire. Yuriko wasn’t there, as far as Gwendith could see. It’s been a day since they received the message that they finally arrived at their destination. Well, in the vicinity of, anyway.

The valley, if it could really be called that, was broad, covered in trees and mist, and undulated like a snake. She could spot a dozen small hills just from her vantage point, as well as several ridges. All of them were lower than their current perch, but that only made navigating the place much harder. She did see the black pillar in the distance, which she supposed was their target.

“Let’s go down,” she said, and Asami agreed. They only waited in line for a couple of minutes before they latched on to the ropes and made their way down. This was the thirteenth time that Gwendith had rappelled down a cliff, even if this was the shortest one so far. At first, she’d been nervous, but the thrill eventually washed it away.

“Wheeeee!” she squealed as she dropped down as fast as she could control, and then landed with a soft thump. Her knees had automatically bent to absorb the impact, and she bounced back up immediately.

Asami landed beside her and the two of them headed towards the campfire. The sight of the flame hovering above bare earth was mesmerizing, and the flames almost masked the runescript circle that Yuriko etched. The glow was golden, and it melded into the colour of the flames.

The advance party began to set up camp. A couple of them dug a ditch, while a couple more chopped down trees to make a small palisade as well as a lean-to shelter. Or maybe platforms for the tents. They were at the base of a cliff after all, and if it rained, the water would first hit the camp before going elsewhere.

Well, this was only the forward camp, so nothing beyond the basic fortifications would be built. She sometimes wondered if all the effort was really necessary, but she was of Agaza, and preparedness was part of their core lessons, as well as the doctrine of defence.

“Where’d Yuri go?” she muttered.

Asami shrugged, then sent out her Wind Scour. After a moment, she shrugged again. “Wanna look for her?”

“Alright.”

The two of them were of limited help anyway. This close to the valley wall, there weren’t many game trails. At least not those wide enough to accommodate them. Still, Yuriko had cleared the underbrush enough that the edge of the camp was readily seen. There were no breaks in the shrubbery at the edges though, so Gwendith didn’t know where to start.

She closed her eyes for a moment, then snapped the open. “I feel water. That way.” She pointed due southeast.

“What, you think someone who could conjure barrels of water out of thin air would be interested in a river to drink?” Asami asked doubtfully.

“Maybe to fish?”

“Ah, could be.”

They pushed past the undergrowth only to be met with more bushes. Asami paused and unleashed her scouting technique, then pointed towards her right. The two of them headed there and found a narrow game trail just wide enough to walk single file, even if the low-hanging branches and sticker bushes smacking Gwendith’s shoulders and hips.

The game trail led towards where the sound of water came from, which, Gwendith supposed, was entirely logical. They made good time and in ten minutes, they were standing by the shores of a stream. It was shallow, perhaps twenty inches deep at the centre, and the water was crystal clear. Gwendith knelt down and touched the stream, then drew her fingers back, pulling a needle of ice stuck to her fingertip. Despite the clarity of the water, the ice she made from it was opaque.

Ah, and there were no signs of Yuriko’s passage here, but then again, she could have travelled through the upper branches.

“Well, easy access to water is always good. No need for Yuriko to waste her time,” Asami said. She paused to send out her Wind Scour, which Gwendith noted had become habitual.

“There’s fish to be caught,” Gwendith pointed out.

The shallow stream meant that the critters inside were equally small, but every little bit of meat helped, and with the portable ration bar fabricator, nothing was wasted.

“Yeah, you wanna start now?”

“Hmmm.” Gwendith pursed her lips. She’d really rather find Yuriko to cuddle with, but in the deep, and misty forest, that was a fool’s errand.

Gwendith felt Asami send out her Wind Scour again, and was just about to get up when her cousin screamed, “Hostiles!”

Gwendith spun her daggers around her body and sprang upright, just in time to see a beast, a wolf that was nearly a pace and a half high at the shoulder, spring out.

Ptang! Ptang!

Gwendith’s daggers slammed into the creature’s hide, only for them to bounce away. But she was already in motion as she and Asami sprang away from the wolf’s trajectory. The beast shook its head as ice and frost began to form on its fur.

Except…why was its fur made out of iron?